Interview with ICO/STO Advisor – Juan Pablo | Humans Of Blockchain

Welcome to our comprehensive interview series – Humans of Blockchain™ where we get the best in the business to answer diverse questions. This series will clear the air of doubt in the blockchain space today by focusing on bringing more transparency to the readers.

1. We would love to know more about you Juan. Your journey and how you entered the blockchain space?

I’ve always been a freelancer, since I was 18 years old, founding my own Tennis Acadamy in Madrird, until now, managing a healthy business. My father is a stocks and forex trader, he taught me trading since I was a teenager. I started with forex in around 2010 and cryptocurrencies since 2015. When I discovered the blockchain technology I knew immediately that the future was here.

My background as businessman helped me a lot to open my way on the blockchain industry. I started making collaborations with projects where I invested, helping the community and customers. My growth was very natural, organic, learning and helping other projects until now, advising ICOs and startups to get his goals. My motto is thinking outside of the box.

I’m recognized as a TOP 15 Expert in the ICObench.com platform and TOP Expert for Spain and Latin America. I’m also one of the first IMMO.foundation HIGH 1000 Member.

2. What blockchain startups are you presently advising? What factors do you consider when deciding to take the advisory role in a startup?

I’m advising and working with several projects, for instance:

A strong smart purchases and supply chain platform, gscplatform.io , partnered with IBM, selected by etclabs incubator pilot and a really good team.

Dim.foundation , an ecosystem based on his hybrid stock exchange, hybse.com

Nagricoin.io , a real ecologic agrotech company, nagrithech.com

When I decide to join a new project, I check multiple factors. I talk with the founders and check all the team, seed funding, budget, website and documentation, business plan, objectives and goals, etc. It’s more important than ever studying, in depth every startup. The market is more mature now, everybody should be careful with their investments and collaborations.

3. What is the status of blockchain in Spain? (Both in terms of adoption and regulations)

The status of blockchain in Spain is growing really fast. Spanish blockchain industry has been flying under the radar for a while, but is exploding lately. Spain is now one of the countries with more bitcoin ATM’s, the ICO ecosystem, roadshowsand conferences are growing and many professionals are turning to the blockchain industry.

Solid projects like Aragon.org are respected in the industry and they opened the way for the development and growth of the blockchain in Spain. The regulations are close to come, Spain will follow the European Union decisions about cryptocurrencies.

4. There was a recent crash in the crypto market. What are your views about that?

Well, we are on a bear market and cannot say is over. Nobody knows if we are done bottom already or not, but it’s obvious that 2019 is a promising year. I don’t care too much about the price right now, it’s time for accumulate and hodl. The technology, it’s development and adoption are the real value of all crypto ecosystem, and I’m absolutely confident about it’s success.

Since I work in this industry, I’ve seen a strong growth of professionals, development and innovation, the roots of a technologic revolution.

5. We noticed that you also own a sports services business. We would love to know your views on how blockchain technology can revolutionize sports industry?

The first use of blockchain on sports business could be the federations. Managing the licenses, activity, rewards, databases, etc. on the blockchain. For professional teams, events, merchandising, pro tournaments, advertising and similar could implement a token payments system, joining the traditional services with social media activity, for instance.

Anyway, there are other industries with more blockchain adoption needs. The sports industry will evolute to blockchain after other industries do it.

6. What are the hinderances to adoption of blockchain technology presently? What should be done to overcome them?

There are several factors.

– Regulations. Institutional money will coming to the market only after the regulations. The success of cryptocurrencies payment systems, tokenization of assets and every important step for adoption depends of the regulations right now.

– Security and scalability. The centralized exchanges and platforms can’t guarantee 100% secure systems at this time, and the real decentralization is on a very early stage yet. The next step of adoption is the hardest. Important amounts of money, resources and important investors are watching to go in but all the ecosystem needs more security and scalability. Every strong project is working hard on decentralization and scalability.

– Patience. The world works quicker everyday and majority people want immediate results. It was the 10th anniversary of bitcoin’s whitepaper recently, just ten years since the first publication about the blockchain. A revolution like the blockchain needs many years to be a success. We are talking about changing every industry on the world.

7. What shortcomings do you feel are present in the blockchain space currently? What should be done to overcome them?

Scammers. The scammers have done and keep doing a big damage to the image of the industry. The lack of regulations and the greed and irresponsibility of some people have caused that scammers to invade the crypto community.

The KYC and AML processes, more maturity of investors, the professionalization of the industry and the regulations will help overcome most of the scams. People need security and confidence on the system if a new technology has to be adopted.

8. What are your views about the rising security token markets?

It’s a logical step. The investors want to be part of the project and it’s success. The utilities are important, everybody will use some of them on blockchain platforms and are necessary for the operation of many projects.

But I think the STO’s are the future of crowdfunding, and the tokenization of stock’s securities will be the next step. The blockchain technology is perfect for securities, making cheaper and quicker every process. But at the end, every good business modelwill get it’s space in the industry, utilities or securities.

9. What do you think will the year 2019 hold for the blockchain space?

I’m so excited about 2019. The adoption will keep growing, the technology will keep evolving and the real value of Blockchain will improve, making good projects stronger to impact the market and the real world, with competitive advantages over traditional companies. That will generate more and more adoption and nobody can stop it.

The bear market seems close to be over, an accumulation phase is starting and the perspective of another bull run is in the mind of many people. The psychology is so important for the markets. And 2019 could be the year of regulations and the opening of the first institutional doors. If we put all these possible facts together, the perspective of the new year is really optimistic to me.

10. Any last words of motivation from your end Juan for the audience?

I can see the development of the blockchain industry from inside and it’s really exciting. The revolution is happening, each day. Every project is pushing and working hard to be competitive and, at the end of the day, that’s the important.

We’ll see how the world changes and adopts the blockchain technology, when something is better in so many ways, sooner than later, prevails. The strongest bullish pattern you can find, is when the adoption and volume grows while the price dumps.